SBU Inauguration Plans for President Samuel Stanley

23 Oct 09
 
'Champagne Coronation'
on a 'Beer Budget'
to Encompass
Community for a Week of Events

Along with the
pomp - a pick up basketball game between Stanley
and students!

American academic traditions trace their roots back hundreds of years to the ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Unlike the simple swearing in on a Bible before the multitudes that President Obama did for his inauguration this year, President Stanley's inauguration will more closely resemble the pomp of a coronation.

The event will begin with an academic procession from the Wang Center to the Sports Complex. It will include faculty from throughout the SUNY system as well as SBU students representing different colleges and majors. All faculty will be dressed in their academic regalia - caps and gowns normally seen only at graduation, as pictured below. They will be led by the Grand Marshall, President of the University Senate Prof. Michael Schwartz, carrying the University mace, also shown below.

President Stanley will be sworn in by SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher. Then State University Trustees Michael Russell and Cary Staller will place the University President's medallion, pictured above, over his head.

According to Wikipedia, the concept of the medallion as an indication of authority is traced to the Middle Ages. It is symbolic of the office and not academic achievement, therefore once Stanley retires, it will be passed on to his successor.

Stanley will give his inaugural address and then the audience can join him for refreshments in the Pritchard Gym.

Given the massive budget cuts the University has endured due to Wall Street - even the phones in the faculty offices in Asian and Asian American Studies have been removed - President Stanley asked the inaugural committee to make the events as cost effective as possible - and they have. In many cases they are expanding upon events that would have occurred in a smaller format.

In other cases, they have come up with events that are relatively free. The best example will be on Thursday, October 22nd, from 2-3:30, when President Stanley takes on students in a pick-up basketball game in the Pritchard Gym - the event most likely to be attended by the most amount of students.

And in a spirit of 'Communiversity' during these trying economic times, the committee also came up with a way to give back to the community. On October 21st at 5pm will be Community Outreach Day in the SAC Ballroom. Local nonprofits who work with underserved populations will be in attendance to recruit volunteers, ranging from off-campus partners like Island Harvest to on-campus partners like Oxfam America.

Student organizations will showcase their community involvement by collecting items on behalf of the nonprofits they have chosen to support. That day, for example, KSA, the Korean Student Association, is having its first ever charity event collecting non-perishables and clothing for the Pax Christi Hospitality Center.